


sit by a fire with someone

by DawningStar



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-06 03:19:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19054189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawningStar/pseuds/DawningStar
Summary: After the kidnapping and unlikely rescue, Uzume and Amano face the even more difficult task of trying to get answers.





	sit by a fire with someone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pepperdoken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pepperdoken/gifts).
  * Inspired by [what I can know and admit to knowing](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18781951) by [VagabondDawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VagabondDawn/pseuds/VagabondDawn). 



“What’s your name, kid?” Uzume demands suspiciously into the dark-clad shoulder of the unidentified kunoichi. The girl looks maybe as old as a small thirteen. Maybe younger. 

The girl doesn’t answer, as she hasn’t answered the last ten or fifteen questions into her own presence. Whatever drugs the Cloud ninja gave her, Uzume still can’t quite stand or speak unslurred. Nothing seems to have dimmed her determination in the least, to Amano’s continuing relief. 

The girl still hasn’t dismissed her Shadow Clone. The first copy Amano met is running ahead as a point guard, while the second, possibly real, helps Amano support Uzume. 

Uzume would probably be happier if Amano were carrying her alone, but after his own injuries and the length of the chase to catch up, Amano needs to preserve what little chakra he has left. Not least because if the unnamed girl changes her mind about wanting them dead, Uzume won’t have any defense except him. 

“Who sent a kid out here?” Uzume continues to interrogate their uncooperative rescuer. 

Amano has not asked any questions at all — because of the burning need to rescue Uzume, but also because the girl had used his ANBU title, not his name. That implied some things. 

He’s more than a little worried that Uzume’s blunt and suspicious approach will lose them the only help they have out here. The girl did rescue both of them. 

Even if she knows entirely too much and gives no explanations. 

When the kid breaks her silence it’s only to say, “We should probably camp soon,” and the fact that Uzume hasn’t asked another question for a full fifteen minutes forces Amano to agree. 

They make camp, finally, as far from their own tracks as Amano’s flagging energy can manage. The girl’s Shadow Clone does most of the work, building a well-hidden campsite in a quick familiar style Amano could imagine from most of his ANBU teammates. 

The kunoichi shifts Uzume’s weight onto Amano, showing the intelligence to get well away from Uzume’s range. Half-conscious and drugged or not, Uzume hits hard. 

He lowers Uzume to the ground gently, keeping one hand on her shoulder to remind her she’s with an ally. 

“No one’s chasing us yet,” the kunoichi says with an odd distant expression. She blinks and smiles at Amano. “I don’t expect anyone to try, at this point, but we should still be careful.” 

The first and only answer she had given to Uzume’s long list of questions had been much the same. No pursuit. Whatever tracking skill she has, it seems accurate enough to find Uzume, at least. 

“Listen,” the girl says, with a slight apologetic twist to her mouth. “I can keep at least the first watch for you both, but when my clone goes away I’m probably going to pass out. It’s hard to say how long.” 

She doesn’t sound like a ninja putting her safety in the hands of complete strangers. If she sounds like anyone Amano knows, it is Wolf: overextending himself again, shifting risks from his comrades to himself, determined to trust his teammates even when his instincts are obviously against the whole idea, so often the same tone in his voice. _Sorry if my unconsciousness is inconvenient, taicho._

Not only would making the comparison out loud be illegal, Uzume would hate hearing it. She always hates hearing anything about Hatake. 

“Thank you for the warning,” Amano says, because if he judges on Wolf’s standards it actually is an improvement over not giving advance notice. 

“You can pick me up if there are enemies,” the girl adds helpfully. “I promise not to kill you for it.” 

Useful information from someone who clearly fights at ANBU level. 

He spends a tired moment wondering whether it could possibly be Wolf’s fault that the girl identified him as Crow. It’s not like he can ask, especially not in front of Uzume. Amano has noticed that the girl hasn’t said it again since they caught up with each other, which may mean she cares at least a little about ANBU rules. 

Even if she doesn’t, Amano does. ANBU rules are the only way he’s yet found to keep the Hyuuga clan away from their favorite pastime, constant criticism. 

Once the camp is secure, he accepts that he can’t avoid sleeping and settles by Uzume to do it. At this point their lives are in the girl’s hands whether they want that or not. At least if he sleeps, he can recover enough chakra to be more useful, and figure out what she wants then. 

He wakes with a jolt when Uzume moves away from his hand...but she’s awake, she’s safe, and she looks alert. The drugs must have worn off. 

She’s also glaring with deep suspicion at the limp sleeping form of the kunoichi who rescued them. Situation normal. 

“Who is she, Amano?” Uzume hisses, as though Amano has any better idea. 

He can only shake his head. “She never told me.” 

Uzume scowls. “We should restrain her while she’s out...if she’s out.” The girl doesn’t twitch even a little at this suggestion, so she is probably unconscious. What would make dismissing a Shadow Clone affect her this way? Amano has no idea. 

Regardless, he doesn’t like the idea of returning her help with imprisonment, even if Uzume is right about the fact that this is the best chance they are ever going to get. He doesn’t think they could actually keep her prisoner all the way to Konoha. He hasn’t forgotten that she by herself took out all the Cloud ninja who defeated both of them working together. 

He’s sure that if they try, she won’t ever let them see her again, and that seems like a shame. 

“No,” he says. Technically he is in charge of this mission, though he and Uzume rarely make decisions on that basis. “We have a better chance of finding out who she is if she doesn’t think we’re hostile.” 

Uzume huffs. “She’s luring us into false security. Probably an infiltrator.” 

_Crow-taicho,_ she had greeted him. Not the kind of information anyone outside Konoha’s highest ranks ought to have. 

She doesn’t quite act like ANBU, but she doesn’t act like any sort of normal person. “Once we reach Konoha, you can certainly report your suspicions,” Amano says. “I’m pretty sure if we tie her up she’ll disappear.” 

Or kill them. But she’d put so much work into not letting them die that it almost seems personal. She probably won’t kill them now. 

“Fine,” Uzume grumbles, prodding him with a sharp hand. “Whatever she does is your fault. Now go back to sleep, I’ve got the watch.” 

Amano does, trusting both that Uzume will wake him in the event of trouble and that Uzume won’t make any trouble of her own. She knows how exhausted they both are. 

When he wakes again, Uzume is still glaring at the nameless kunoichi, but now they are all awake. The girl is sitting in a tree, idly swinging her feet while she reads a book. Where she got that Amano has no idea. 

The campsite is already as clear of trace as they can make it under the circumstances. “Back to Konoha?” Amano asks. 

The girl looks up with an odd sad smile. “I was just trying to decide that.” 

She knows Konoha, but she isn’t sure if she can go there. Amano thinks again of the young ANBU masks he’s known, and he wonders. 

“I think you should come with us,” he offers. At the least, he’d like more evidence of who she is. Why she’s alone, fighting on behalf of Konoha shinobi with no apparent mission or backup. 

She hesitates...then nods once, jumping from the branch with the grace of a Konoha-trained ninja. 

“I guess I should make sure you two don’t run into anything else you can’t handle.” 

Uzume gives an unimpressed grunt. “First you should introduce yourself,” she mutters. 

“You’re right,” the girl says, with a sigh. “You can call me Kako.” 

It’s nice to have something to call her, though Amano doesn’t miss the complete lack of clan name and the implication that what she’s given may not even be her name. “Pleased to meet you, Kako,” he says, because Uzume certainly won’t be polite. “I’m Amano, and this is Uzume.” 

Since Kako rescued them both from the kidnapping Cloud ninja and healed Amano, their clans are obvious, but he might as well leave them out too. 

“I’m glad to meet you both officially,” Kako says, with a twitch of a smile that reminds Amano all over again of the way she’d first greeted him. A flicker of mischief in her tone, like a new recruit realizing for the first time that he’s a Hyuuga — not that Amano spends any particular effort hiding the fact when there are so many to vanish among. 

She called him _taicho_ , and Amano is having a hard time not seeing her as team. Whoever is in charge of her needs to do a better job. 

“Come on, then,” Uzume snaps, leaping into the trees. “Don’t waste my time.” 

“Never,” Kako agrees, deadpan. But she does follow. 

Maybe someone in Konoha will know who the girl is and why she’s wandering alone. If not, maybe someone needs to be told about her. 

Amano knows better than to ask questions, but he’s a captain; he knows how to delegate when necessary.


End file.
